Popular weight loss pil could kill

A two-year clinical trial has found that Australia's most popular weight-loss drug could be potentially fatal, with doctors being been ordered to stop prescribing the drug to the overweight.

The decision by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), quietly circulated to doctors on Christmas Eve, has driven women desperate to obtain the drug sibutramine, marketed as Reductil, to the internet to get around the ban, The Sunday Telegraph reports.

According to the Australian Medical Association, Reductil has become Australia's most popular weight-loss pill, replacing the now-prohibited Ponderax and the restricted Duromine as "the preferred drug of prescription".

But the TGA has imposed restrictions after almost 200 reports of adverse reactions to the drug.

Reductil has been linked to strokes, high blood pressure, thyroid problems, anxiety and at least one death in Australia.

The circular warns that the fat-busting drug could harm the very people it was aimed at - the overweight.

"Based on the preliminary results of the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial (SCOUT), changes have been made to the Australian product information to highlight that sibutramine must not be prescribed to patients with a history of cardiovascular disease and/or hypertension," it states.

"In summary, the SCOUT study suggested potential for harm in patients who are overweight or obese and at high risk of a CV (cardiovascular) event."

It is believed tens of thousands of prescriptions have been written for the drug, but authorities were unable to provide the latest figures yesterday.